Cliffnotes, August 21, 2000
by Chance
Summary: In Cliffnotes


Title: Cliffnotes August 21, 2000  
Author: Chance  
E-mail: chance1562@aol.com  
Feedback: yes please   
Category: Family, angst  
Spoilers: none  
Season/sequel/series: Cliffnotes  
Rating: PG, PG-13  
Content warnings: Another sad one  
Summary: In Cliffnotes  
Archive: Wanderings, ELF Command, Mo, and the WWOMB, anyone else ask please   
Disclaimer: I dont' own sQ or any characters from there, don't sue me   
Author's notes: Thanks to Shannon and Mel B. for the beta and med check advice  This is in the same vein as the Robert one, I think I'm in a mood   
For AT, I miss you  
  
****  
  
Two years! Only two years since Robbie had been declared "dead" (MIA being the "official" term) and now everything was going to hell, _again_.  
  
Lucas watched as a launch from the large ship anchored offshore landed, five people jumping out and rushing up the sand towards him.  
  
"Where is she?" one of them asked, breathless.   
  
'Obviously a city dweller,' Lucas thought, detached, 'can't run on the sand to save his life...or anyone else's.' His face twisted at that last thought. "Over there," he answered, pointing towards the main house. They hurried on, not hearing the rest of his words. "You're too late, she's already dead." The boy dropped down onto the sand, hugging his knees to his chest, and gazed blankly out at the sea.  
  
It just wasn't fair.  
  
*  
  
Later on, after the chaos had died down, Nathan went to find his son -- the only member of his family left, now. He spotted a lone figure sitting at the end of the dock, watching as the large ship sailed away; Carol's body along with it.  
  
Her remains had to be properly "handled" before it could be reclaimed and buried on the island. The "rescue crew" wanted to make sure it was a fairly common, yet deadly disease and not something potentially even more dangerous and contagious. As it was, they thought she'd been bit by an insect and contracted the disease that way, and they weren't in any danger of contracting it. He and Lucas would decided where together -- once they could think halfway clearly again.  
  
Stopping, Nathan just stood and observed his youngest as the young man sat...too still. Lucas was always moving usually -- whether he was fidgeting while studying or he was telling them about the day's activities, his hands flying everywhere as he illustrated a point -- his body was always in motion.  
  
Not now; now, barely a hair moved on his head. It was the stillness of his son -- usually so filled with energy -- that drove the reality of the day home. Carol was dead from some damn tropical disease and she wasn't coming back. He'd called for help the moment he'd seen her condition, but help had arrived too late to save her; she'd been dead for at least an hour by then.   
  
Shaking himself, forcing his mind to stop replaying the horrors of the day, Nathan closed the distance and sat down next to his son. The teenager's face was as still as the rest of him, closed off in a way that was reminiscent of the time just after Robert's death. He'd hoped never to see that look again in his lifetime.  
  
"Hey, Kiddo," Nathan said softly. He gently wrapped an arm around Lucas and drew him to his side, sighing in relief when Lucas didn't pull away. Just after Robert's death, Lucas hadn't let anyone touch him for weeks after ward; brushing everyone aside until they'd forced him to talk to them -- ending in one of the largest confrontations the family had ever had. It had been that scene that had finally brought the start of the healing. Thankfully, it didn't look like they were going to have to follow the same path this time.  
  
"Why, Dad?" Lucas asked softly, blue eyes finally shedding long held in tears.  
  
"I don't know Pal," Nathan replied, his own tears falling. "I just don't know."   
  
He brought his other arm up, clenching Lucas to him tightly, suddenly afraid that if he let him go, Lucas would disappear too; he couldn't lose anyone else, he just couldn't.  
  
*  
  
Lucas held on just as tightly, desperately trying to imagine the day away, but the vision of his mother -- face drenched in sweat and hands clutching the blankets convulsively as the last of her breath left her -- kept flashing before his eyes. The image became mixed up with the nightmares he had suffered right after his brother had died. Robbie's mangled face and imagined cries for help mingled with his mother's whimpers and tear-filled eyes until Lucas wanted to scream.  
  
He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to block out the images. At least she's been able to say good-bye to him, he would always hold onto that memory. She'd known, somehow, that she wasn't going to make it, and she's had his father get him from where he'd been hovering outside their bedroom.  
  
She'd told him she loved him and that she didn't want to leave, but she had no choice. Then she'd caressed his cheek, brushing his tears away, and told him, told _them_, to take care of each other and that she and Robert would look out for them. His father had kissed her one last time and then she'd just...left. She'd convulsed one last time and never drawn in another breath.  
  
His father had immediately started CPR, desperately trying to bring her back and Lucas had assisted, but it had been futile. She'd never regained consciousness and the two of them had sat by her side, numb, until they'd heard the sound of an approaching craft.  
  
Now, as the two of them held each other, Lucas remembered his mother's last words. They had to take care of each other; there wasn't anyone else left.  
  
  
  



End file.
